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NEWS RELEASE

July 14, 2009

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Howard County Earns Statewide Recycling Leadership Award

ELLICOTT CITY, MD –County Executive Ken Ulman has announced that Howard County’s Recycling Division was the recent recipient of the Maryland Recycling Network (MRN) “Outstanding Government Leadership Award.” The Recycling Division is part of the County’s Department of Public Works, Bureau of Environmental Services.

The award was presented at MRN’s yearly conference June 25-26 at the University of Maryland in College Park and recognizes initiatives that promote waste reduction and/or recycling in Maryland. Howard County was nominated for its countywide distribution of single-stream recycling carts, its expanded list of accepted recyclable materials curbside and at the landfill, and increased education and outreach efforts.

“This award says a lot about the men and women who run the many recycling programs the County offers—they are the ones leading the charge. Thanks to these new initiatives, in our first year we increased recyclables collected by 11%, increased recycling participation by 25% and realized a more than $200 thousand savings on trash disposal,” said Executive Ulman.

The mission of the Maryland Recycling Network is to promote sustainable reduction, reuse and recycling (the 3 "R's") of materials otherwise destined for disposal and promote and increase buying products made with recycled material content. The Outstanding Government Leadership Award was open to local, state and federal government entities.